Maurizio Corbi: The birth of a master of car design
"I think I am essentially an aesthete, an artist with a great passion for cars.
It is with these words that Maurizio Corbifor over 25 years senior car designer at Pininfarinawhere he arrived in 1989, after working with companies in the sector such as Aviointeriors e Bertonecurrently active in teaching at the automotive design at Italian Design Institute.
Maurizio Corbi He started drawing very early, well before the age of 10, in primary school, as he himself recalls when asked about his first encounter with the pencil, where he realised he had excellent graphic skills.
Passionate about cars since childhood, he channelled his interest in the graphics and the drawing representing carsdeepening the study of forms and movement.
One day, casually leafing through the trade magazine Quattroruotehe discovered that his passion could become a job; hence the rise in an industry where the designer Italians have always stood out.
A career full of satisfaction
During his years at Pininfarina, Maurizio Corbi has the opportunity to experience epochal changes, both in terms of car engineeringIt has not always been easy, often the projects have turned out to be longer and more demanding than expected; but working at Pininfarina is still very attractive and stimulating, both for the variety of projects and for the pride that comes with being part of a prestigious company.
He considers himself lucky and privileged to have contributed to the design and engineering of historic cars such as the Ferrari 550 Maranelloprobably its flagship, but also models such as the Ford GT40 and the Lamborghini Miura.
According to Corbi the car designer's job is something somewhere between art and technique, sometimes one overpowers the other, sometimes they intertwine perfectly, but surely to be a good car designer you need to have a strong aesthetic sensibility.
The work of the car designer
First they start with sketches, or preparatory drawings, made strictly by hand, then, once scanned in, they are retouched and finalised in Photoshop, using a graphics tablet: with the Corbi begins to pay more attention to the classic carsillustrating them with the use of a hyperrealist technique, i.e. using only freehand drawing, finishing with pencils and felt-tip pens.
With maturity and experience he learns that a good car designer knows how important it is to pay attention to the proportions of the car to be represented, rather than focusing on individual, sometimes negligible details.
In his work for Pininfarina, Corbi mainly uses Photoshop, as it allows him to obtain products that are much more appealing to customers and visually effective, but when it comes to illustrating classic cars - his great passion - he undoubtedly prefers freehand drawing, so as not to give up the pleasure of contact with paper.
The combination of good design and excellent mechanics contributes to making a car a myth; some models have become part of the cars considered milestones in motoring for appearing in a film, without having any great merits in terms of mechanics or performance: on the contrary, they possessed that special appeal that made them timeless.
Its success was certainly decreed by the designer's hand, the expert eye of someone who knows how to anticipate the tastes and desires of enthusiasts, and in this Corbi distinguished himself from the very beginning, as the great Enzo Ferrari "Pininfarina's designer, Maurizio Corbi, he is a master in the use of the graphics tablet, but still retains the ability to illustrate cars in the traditional way, i.e. by freehand drawing, which he masters like a master'.
If you also want to work in this sector, choose the master's degree in car design by Italian Design Institute.
Image source: megadeluxe.com
